Living Joyfully

Sometimes we forget to live with joy. We get bogged down with all the things we believe we have to be doing in order to be successful and in concentrating so much on the must do's, we forget that life is meant to be happy. Christ mentioned that we need to be like children, and if you think about a child's best qualities, they include, acceptance, faith and spontaneity. Being able to go with the flow and find the joy in the moment. Children seem to be changing a bit these days in some of these areas, too grown up, too demanding in their wants. But we all know what Jesus was talking about when he said we need to become like a child.

Forget having a millions scheduled things you take your children to, or the need to excel at every craft there is. No need to be like Diana in Anne of Green Gables and have 3o doilies or 52 tea towels in your collection. No need to have more fabric than you will ever use. No need to always have a home look like a magazine cover or be a fashion plate every time you step inside church. It just creates so many worries for us to be over -achievers all the time and that sort of life steals your joy. I know for a fact that blogging would have been a nightmare for me when my children were small. I would have been creating blogging moments with every thing they said or did. It would have been such a struggle to give them time without wondering if that moment might look good on the blog. Sort of like the people you over hear in the store talking to their children in this really phony voice, loud, so you hear them and hopefully in their eyes, see them as "outstanding" in their parenting skills. I might have been one of those parents but instead of talking loud I would be blogging loud. I know myself well, and know my weaknesses and at this point, its easier to just admit them, work on them and remove the need for others to talk behind my back about them.

Trying to do it all, be perfect, be outstanding, be the best all the time, is just not reality and it takes much more than it gives.

There is great joy in living without putting pressure on ourselves to be the best. Sure, we need to always do our best, but not always trying to be "better than so and so."

My grandchildren will love me even though I have a dirty back hall floor. They might even enjoy me more for not obsessing over keeping it spotless. Children would rather have your time than a perfect home with not a speck of dust or dirt. Children will learn the joy of live, the joy of giving, if you give time joyfully to a friend or family member and see that as an example in life rather than see a mother who is always stressed out about the housework or making perfect crafts for the next exchange that comes along.

Joy is rarely structured or scheduled. It comes from that childlike embracing of a moment in time where something good happens.

My children remember flying kites and making leaf charts and not that I made a beautiful basket filled with home made goodies, that I had made with ego in mind and perhaps to get rave reviews from someone at a baby shower. When I am dead and gone, its not the shiny floors my children will talk about, but hopefully something deeper, more meaningful, something joyful that we shared together.

Just so you know, I am not talking about not being a good homemaker, just not an overachiever homemaker !

Been there, done that, it doesn't work.